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Thoughts from a few months on the road
One of our favorite books on the road has been Robert Cialdini's "The Psychology of Persuasion." Cialdini breaks down how and why people fall for six fundamental sales tactics that manipulate people's social intelligence and experience. It's an essential read before hitting the streets of Southeast Asia. Here's a list of our favorite hustles and their psychological tactics.
Within the Angkor temples, young children offer small flowers as a natural ring or bracelet. The children insist that the flowers were 'free' and 'from the Bhudda', and carefully and tenderly tied it around our fingers before we entered the temple. As we left the temple, we heard the consquential requests for 'one dollar, dollar.' Reciprocity - People feel indebted to those who do something for them or give them a gift.Everyone wants to enjoy the slamming street food in Asia. Locals are continuously feasting on all kinds of mysterious, awesome streetside delicasies. But ill timed bravado can have serious consequences. Travelers religiously follow recommendations from western guidebooks or simply follow the farang. Hustlers name their stalls with the area's latest pick on Travelfish or Lonely Planet. Travelers don't really know which stall is the original 'Sam Lo Kitchen,' they're all just following each other's lead. Social Proof - Uncertain people look to those around them to guide their decisions and actions.
Upon arriving in Ho Chih Minh City, our hotel failed to send us the taxi that we had requested. We quickly read our guide's tips for negotiating a fare. We followed all of the rules, took our official receipt for exiting the airport from the taxi desk, and agreed to a price up front with the driver. As we reached the exit gate, the driver asked "Do you have the pink slip of paper for the exit?" We had a yellow slip, which wasn't the right one. After some more discussion with the guard, our driver 'negotiated' a price for our exit ($15), half what the guard wanted to charge. When we arrived at our hotel, we asked our driver to wait for us to ask the hotel's concierge to resolve the issue of our fare doubling. Surprise, the driver pulled a fast one and sped off. Commitment - People do not like to change their plans, or back out of deals, even if the deal changes unfairly after initial negotiation.There are over 30 outdoor food stalls along the Mekong in Vientiane, all with virtually the same menu and prices. I first checked them out by myself, taking a close look at each stall, and making my choice based on cleanliness, quality of food on display, customer activity, and atmosphere. Fortunately, I had a remarkable meal, one of my best in Asia. As my fiancé and I strolled the riverbank a few nights later, the waiters recognized me and asked me 'if I had had a better meal in Vientiane?' It was up to me to show my fiancé the wisdom of my choice. Consistency - People like praise for their past decisions, as those decisions have led them to where they are today.The most successful sellers at Angkor speak flawlessly polite English, Japanese, Chinese, or French to their customers. They flatter customers with formality -- 'Excuse me sir, would you like a scarf for your wife?' We observed an especially successful young lady communicate in 5 different languages over the course of 30 minutes, and make quite a few sells. Liking - People favor people who are physically attractive, similar to themselves, or who give them compliments.In Phnom Penh, we went to the Vietnamese embassy to apply for a 30 day visa. The guard outside of the embassy informed us that it was a holiday and the embassy was closed, even though we saw people coming and going from the building. He spoke with a higher ranking guard, and then informed us that they could drop off our passports inside the embassy at the visa desk, and have them express processed for an additional $10 USD cash each. He handed me a piece of notebook paper with some handwritten information on it as a receipt, and then asked for the cash. Had the receipt been a bit more official, we may have fallen for it. Authority - People respect titles, uniforms, and local knowledge. Language is a barrier that hustlers exploit to their advantage. On a bus ride to Pakse in southern Laos, we stopped outside of the city at a crossroads and were told that we had to take a Jumbo Tuk Tuk into town, which was consistent with what our guide's description of the transfer. There was only one Jumbo driver waiting there, with an already -packed vehicle. We rebuffed the offer and waited for another driver. He picked us up for half the price. About 5 minutes down the road we passed the actual bus station, which was packed with tuk tuk drivers. Hmmm ... a smart little side hustle between the bus driver and his partner. Scarcity - The more scarce a product, the more people want it. The best hustles are always combinations of these tactics. Our favorite by far occurred on the banks of the Tonle Sap Lake outside Angkor. We saw a young boy about 30 feet from us on the banks of the river taking pictures. I happily smiled and waved for him as a fellow photographer. A few hours later we returned to the dock from our tour, the young boy walked up to Bridget and proudly handed her a picture of me perfectly glued and mounted onto a wooden frame of clichéd images of Angkor. Reciprocity, Liking, Scarcity = 100% Kitsch. 100% Hustled. 100% Unforgettable. Four bucks well spent.We've spent quite a bit of time on islands during the past 4 months -- Serifos, Syros, Naxos, Samos, Patmos, Santorini (Greece); Koh Lanta, Surin Islands (Thailand); Phu Quoc (Vietnam); Japan. One problem these places share is how to handle the impact of tourism. Patmos was the most pristine of the Greek islands. Apparently, the famous monastery there has quite a strong hand in the operations and development of the island.
After spending a month in Japan, I jotted down a few notes on the flight from Tokyo to Bangkok.
- Need stronger environmental protection laws and harsh penalties for violations
- Need to enforce energy and water conservation policies strictly
- Need better waste management strategy, policy, and process
- Need consumer water supply alternatives to plastic water bottles
- Need electric vehicles and car-sharing for short term visitors
- Need to provide visitors with traffic laws immediately upon arrival/rental
- Need to accurately weigh commercial and tourism industries' needs
* Should offer free wifi (just sayin')
I've toyed around with the term "slow travel" on Twitter to describe a few tips and insights, but it's a vague and trendy-sounding term without a clear definition. Wikipedia says: "slow travel is a state of mind which allows travellers to engage more fully with communities along their route, often favoring visits to spots enjoyed by local residents rather than merely following guidebooks." Hmmm ... is it okay to fly from California to Papa New Guinea to visit their local dive bar?
The traveling community needs a few principles similar to those of the slow food movement. Here are a few ideas that cross over directly to travelers for starters:
- developing public policies that preserve the environmental health of the community
- lobbying the government to fund sustainable development practices
- educating citizens about the risks and impact of the tourism
- encouraging ethical buying in local marketplaces
- preserving traditional guest houses
We spent a month in Tuscany and Umbria to learn as much as we could from the birthplace of the slow food movement. We visited agriturismos, vineyards, and restaurants that marketed themselves as environmentally conscious without being pretentious about it. Given the trendiness of the green movement, we discovered a wide spectrum of services, from the righteous to the illegitimate. Unfortunately, there isn't a reliable rating system for these business online. A few of the differentiating criteria to consider :
Vibe - Relaxed or Active? Luxury or Down Home? Private or Interactive? Farm or Manicured Lawns?
Half or Full Board - Do you want to cook occasionally and visit other farms and restaurants nearby, or would you'd like the agritourismo to provide all of your meals? The proximity of walkable/bikeable services should be taken into consideration.Farming Operations - Most agritourismos aren't tucked away on an idyllic, tree lined road miles from anywhere. Most of the time, the farm operations aren't located at the same site as the housing. For example, the agritourismo consists of a small office selling olive oil with a few hotel rooms in an old barn. They might have an olive grove a few miles down the road if you're lucky. Even when the farm and boarding are located on the same site, there might not be any real interaction with farm allow, so if you're interested in this, make sure to confirm what you'll have access to.
Exact Location - Google Maps coverage of Tuscany and Umbria is insightful to 5 mile radius. It doesn't have accurate data on country roads, or any data on traffic volume that could help inform your choice. Also, note that much of the user submitted data on Google Maps (and Y! Maps) is not accurate and should be cross referenced. People create public maps for all sorts of reasons on these platforms, and the data submitted is not verified in any meaningful way. Often times, proprietors will provide a Google map of their property which doesn't accurately reflect the location of the farm.
When we finally made it to Santorini in early September, the sun disappeared, the winds arrived, and the crowds of travelers vanished. Everybody else went back to work. Our inboxes started to fill up with job opportunities and tempting project briefs. The world was moving on without us. We felt like we were skipping school.
The primary goal of our travels was to research, experience, and document different service design business models for a few potential projects back in the US. Eight weeks of island hopping in Greece had provided plenty of input. The Greeks live well during the summer on those islands. We documented the touch points of each accommodation that we stayed in. We also created a hierarchy of traveler needs and mapped it to each location that we visited. Not surprisingly, many of our key insights about both accommodations and places came from other people -- fellow travelers, business owners, and local characters all spoke openly about their pain and satisfaction points on each of the islands. In Umbria and Tuscany, we selected a few business models that overlapped with our projects back in the US. Every few days, we talked in depth about our own pain and satisfaction points with these businesses and organized our notes around consistent themes. We also started to identify consumer travel products that were lacking in the technology marketplace. We brainstormed new products to solve these problems, and ran our ideas through a a technical and business feasibility model based on tools from Stone+Yamashita and IDEO. So far, our 'post-graduate' studies have given us a much more informed perspective on hospitality and service design. It's certainly given me a few travel product ideas.I backup my photos from the trip on flickr, and Posterous just launched a nice embeddable gallery feature. Feel free to add me as a contact on flickr if you'd like to see the full sized images.
